A Place at the Table Page #6

---

that we could put

two pallets of food in it.

And we thought we had really

arrived, that that...

We could certainly meet the needs

of the community

with two pallets of food.

And four years ago,

a gentleman from our church

donated this trailer and now we're

doing four pallets twice a week.

And it's... It's amazing

how the need

has increased over the ten years.

About a month ago,

we had three officers including myself.

However, due to budget constraints,

we're now down to just me.

It was always

kind of a prideful thing

that I never needed anybody's help.

Unfortunately, I haven't received

a pay raise in four years.

And what I used to spend

on a month in groceries

now gets me about two weeks.

I have utilized

Pastor Bob's food bank.

The way it makes me feel,

it's very humiliating.

Uh, well, incorrect.

That... It's not humiliating.

It's, um, very grounding.

The stereotype

of food banks is always

for the unemployed

or the disabled,

people that can't go out

and get a job.

That's not always the case.

Sometimes in life,

you just get to points

where you need a little extra help.

Ranching is a good part of life.

It's a lot of work.

But it's an honest...

Actually, it's an honest trade.

But the way the economy

and everything has gone south,

I have had to go find

another job out of the house.

So I work on the ranch

from 7:
00 in the morning

till 3:
00 in the afternoon.

And then

at 3:
00 in the afternoon

till 11:
00 at night,

I got down and clean the school.

# And a secret #

# In an envelope #

It's a good job.

It's close to home.

There's a lot that you...

You worry about.

Your kids is the main one.

And that's part of the reason

I did take a second job

is so I can help buy groceries

and put food on the table

for my kids.

Come on, dogs.

Don't touch and don't look.

Cool.

Pastor Bob and his wife,

they do give 'em

a warm meal after school.

- Hi, Daddy.

- Howdy.

It helps, you know.

It's getting harder

to try to figure out

how to make all your ends meet.

But you gotta do

what you have to do

to help support

what you created, you know.

All right.

Do you need help?

- Nope.

- Okay. Thank you.

I'll grab three off there as I go by.

I was one of those kids

that was hungry.

Growing up, it was difficult,

because I could see

how difficult it was

for my mother when she would return

from the food bank.

It was embarrassing.

I remember

I was in second grade,

and just remembering

opened up the refrigerator

for, like, the first time in my life

and going, "Wow."

I'm one of those kids,

you know,

that you hear about on TV,

or you see about on TV.

There was, like, two carrots

in the bottom of the crisper.

And I just remembered thinking,

"What are we gonna do?"

I deliver food bags every week

from the food bank at our local church.

It's uncomfortable sometimes,

so what I've tried to do is

get an understanding

of their schedules,

and then drop it off

and leave it,

so it's not that added pressure.

And I know that they're thankful,

because it's gone

when I come back.

I know how I operated.

It wasn't very good.

I didn't do well in school.

I didn't have that great

of attendance.

And I just felt like

I kind of lived

under this umbrella

of feeling inferior to others.

It messes with you.

It's just still always there.

Rosie just really struggles.

You know,

she was significantly behind.

But despite all of that,

she tries so hard

to be so positive all the time.

One of my own personal

missions was

to try to see if there was

something I could do

that could make a difference.

And I asked her if she'd be

interested in the food bags.

And she was very excited.

We could do with another one.

You want cake for breakfast,

right, Rose?

- Yeah.

- Yeah? All right.

- I'll take that in for you.

- Okay.

You guys got your hands full.

- I'll just walk it in for you.

- Okay.

All righty.

- How are you, Miss Nichols?

- I'm good, thanks.

You ready for your last big week

of school before Christmas?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

Okay...

Blah. There we go.

Okay, a bunch of graham crackers.

Mrs. Nichols

comes about once a week.

It's eight bags that she brings.

There might be potatoes.

There might be bread.

You know, right now, I think we have

30 jars of peanut butter.

That's just one of the things

that Mrs. Nichols brings out right now.

There's always

some kind of soups,

Spaghettios, a lot of snacks.

I like these.

Ooh, now these ones...

Sometimes, I will admit,

I do feel a little bit guilty

bringing 'em food bags,

because it's starch,

it's lots of carbohydrates,

it's lots of sugars

and other chemicals.

Grandma, we got apple pie bars.

Oh, awesome.

Apple pie.

In a perfect world,

you would want it to be

as well-balanced

as you could make it,

but the reality is

you get what you can.

And giving something is

certainly more than nothing.

And so you just

kind of find a little bit of...

I guess reassurance in knowing

that you are making a difference,

even though it's not perfect.

Okay. Give these three...

- Are you gonna take 'em all?

- Yeah, I got 'em.

All right. Thank you.

- Good job on your basketball game.

- Thank you.

That's something

that's extremely important.

The churches and the community

groups that do hand out food

are doing an incredible service

to this country

and to the children that are

experiencing hunger.

But that's just a quick fix.

That's for today and tomorrow,

maybe for next week.

We call it emergency food.

It's no longer emergency food.

This is called chronic use

of a broken system

for which people cannot

be held accountable.

If people are

gonna be relying on this food

as a significant portion

of their food intake over time,

then we do need to pay attention

to what kind of food

are they getting?

Charity is a great thing,

but it's not the way

to end hunger.

We don't fund

our Department of Defense

through charity, you know.

We shouldn't, you know,

see that our kids are healthy

through charity either.

There should be, you know,

something that...

In our country, in America,

the richest country in the world,

you know, we should, you know,

take care of our kids.

We have tried

1,000 points of light.

We have tried it in spades.

But with all that expansion

of private feeding,

all of that effort,

especially by the faith communities,

we have not reduced hunger.

Our legislators only think

of the cost of hunger in America

as being what it is

that they spend on food stamps.

But the genuine cost

of hunger in America

is way, way higher.

- Hey, Mr. Broom.

- Hey, Doc. How you doing?

I gotta get a forklift

to get your chart out the door.

What do you think?

You gotta roll around on a cart.

Yeah. How you doing today?

- Not too good, Doc.

- Uh-oh.

Where have you noticed

the swelling at?

My legs again.

And the fluids get all riled

and jump up, and I just...

Oh, I mean, I be scared

to lay back down.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes